Joao Plata lifts the Cup
Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT – Real Salt Lake keeps the Rocky Mountain Cup again this year in an impressive win over the Colorado Rapids, winning 4-1 at home.
RSL looked poised and under control for most of the first half, but didn’t capitalize on the 17 shots on goal until Joao Plata slipped one past Tim Howard in the 41st minute of play to put the Claret and Cobalt on top before the intermission.
The second half picked up right where things had left off with RSL with a Penalty Kick in the 50th minute taken by Luis Silva adding to the RSL lead. From that point on the Rapids play took on a little bit of desperation. Even when Danilo Acosta was sent off in the 57th minute for a hard foul RSL still kept their composure.
Acosta sees Red
Real switched to a more defensive style of play when they went down a man, but all that changed when Alan Gordon entered the match. Gordon was only on the pitch for 9 minutes when he was sent off in the 77th minute with his second yellow. With both sides fielding 10 players RSL went back into full attack mode for the remainder of the match.
Even after Joshua Gatt was awarded a goal by the VAR in the 82nd minute to bring Colorado within site of a draw RSL didn’t back down. Luis Silva sealed the win for RSL in the 2nd minute of stoppage time, and Brooks Lennon added insult to injury with a goal just before the final whistle to put RSL on top 4-1.
Plata beats Tim Howard
Goals by Period 1 2 F
Real Salt Lake 1 3 4
Colorado Rapids 0 1 1
Scoring Summary:
RSL – Joao Plata – 41′
RSL – Luis Silva – 50′ (PK)
COL – Joshua Gatt – 82′
RSL – Luis Silva – 90’+2′
RSL – Brooks Lennon – 90’+6′
Misconduct Summary:
RSL – Justen Glad – 32′ – unsporting behavior
RSL – Luis Silva – 50′ – delaying the restart of play
RSL – Danilo Acosta – 57′ – serious foul (red card)
COL – Alan Gordon – 73′ – unsporting behavior
COL – Alan Gordon – 77′ – being Alan Gordon (red card)
COL – Kevin Dopyle – 90’+4′ unsporting behavior
Officials
Referee: Armand Villerreal
Assistant Referee: Jose Da Silva
Assistant Referee: Nick Uranga
4th Official: Younes Marrakchi
VAR: Victor Rivas
Attendence: 18,855
Lineups:
Real Salt Lake Starting XI
Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran; Danilo Acosta; Justin Glad; David Horst; Sunny; Luke Mulholland; Jefferson Savarino (Chris Wingert, 63′); Albert Rusnak; Joao Plata (Brooks Lennon, 73′); Luis Silva (Sebastian Saucedo, 90’+3′)
Substitutes Not Used: Lalo Fernandez; Justin Schmidt; Sebastian Saucedo; Nick Besler; Yura Movsisyan
Colorado Rapids Starting XI
Colorado Rapids: Tim Howard; Mekeil Williams; Axel Sjoberg; Eric Miller; Marion Hairston; Mohammed Saeid (Joshua Gatt, 62′); Luis Gil (Alan Gordon, 68′); Bismak Boateng (Michael Azira, HT); Dominque Badji; Kevin Doyle; Shkelzen Gashi
Substitutes Not Used: John Berner; Mike Da Fonte; Dillon Serna; Jared Watts
Next up for RSL
Real Salt Lake and Utah Sporting News travel to BC Place in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia to continue the race toward the playoffs against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Satuday, September 9th.